BOSTON -- The widow of alleged Boston Marathon bomber Tamarlan Tsarnaev says news of her late husband’s suspected involvement in the April 15 terror attack that killed three people and injured 270 came as "an absolute shock."

Katherine Russell made her first public comments on April 23 in a statement issued by her lawyer, Amato A. Deluca, and obtained by RFE/RL.

She said she is "doing everything she can to assist with the investigation" and that the loss of life and injuries suffered in the bombings have caused "profound distress and sorrow” to [her] and her family."

Russell, who lived in Cambridge with Tsarnaev, has been staying with her parents in Rhode Island with the couple's 3-year-old daughter.